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Chapter 53- The Mage Killer

I froze, although I wasn't sure why. The sound I heard wasn’t familiar to me, all I could glean from it was that someone had been injured, and then fallen to the ground. So, surely, the best course of action would be to turn around and help them, right?

But that isn’t what my instincts were telling me. Or rather, not my instincts, but Battle Meditation. Whatever was left over from Sense Danger was all but screaming at me that turning around was a bad idea. That if I did I would be killed.

And then he started talking.

“Robert Zeneki, you’ve come quite far from when I first saw you in the prison cell, haven’t you? This is, what, our third meeting? And I can tell from here that your Affinity has grown nicely,” They chuckled at some joke that only they knew, “What am I saying? I could see your growth every second that you were in my city. Out of all the Mages I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, yours is by far the most unusual.”

This time, my mind froze too. I didn’t normally make connections like this so easily, but for some reason that last sentence rang a chime in my mind and suddenly a lot of little oddities began to make a whole lot of sense.

“Tell me, Zeneki, how did you manage it? What’s your secret? You’d have to be a much more experienced Mage to reach such a high Affinity, and I know that couldn’t be the case because you were only, what was it? Ah yes, Level 4 just a few months ago.”

Ironhold’s words brought me out of my stupor but I immediately tuned them out, just trying to take every second I could to make sense of everything.

He knew my Level, but how? I only told one person and that was the Receptionist. Oh, dumb question. Of course he had access to that, he’s the Lord. But he can also sense my Affinity, I guess Finch had a Skill for that. Could he also see my Affinity? I’d have to ask, but that’s not possible right now, is it? So thinking about that isn’t important then, at least not as important as…

Lord Ironhold began to speak, but he was barely able to get out the first syllable before I interrupted him.

“You’re the Mage Killer.” The way I spoke was cold, and completely devoid of any actual emotion. I’d never spoken like this before, and I might have been concerned if I’d had the presence of mind to do so.

“I suppose, if you wanted to label it, that would be accurate, yes. Although I prefer to think of it as, hmm, perhaps a Mage Hunter? Yes, I’m merely hunting the prey that wanders into my territory, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

Unwittingly, Lightning began to arc between my fingers, but I had to hold back my urge to attack for just a while longer. There was something that I had to know, something that had been just barely in the back of my mind since it happened.

“Why?”

“Hm? Well, Archibald was really such a dreadful Servant so I wanted him dead. Then I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone and kill you as well? That way, I can pin the murder on the deranged King Slayer without drawing any more attention to the ‘Mage Killer’. It’s really quite-”

“No. Not me. Him.”

He seemed to be stunned for a moment, as if confused about something, before he asked, “Archibald? I believe I already-”

I turned around, and the Lord seemed to be shocked at whatever expression was on my face.

“Why did you kill Kaelan? Just… why?” There was more I wanted to say, but all of a sudden the words became so much more difficult to say. Like something was lodged in my throat, and wouldn’t leave.

“Oh,” He chuckled self-deprecatingly, “Right, of course. Your little Teacher. Well, that answer is actually quite simple,” He paused, as if to create dramatic effect, and smiled wider than I thought possible, “Power. It’s as simple as that. The Path I inherited from my father, that he inherited from his father before him, can only grow in just one particular way. I’m not sure that I should tell you, it’s supposed to be kept quite secret you see, but you’ll be dead soon so perhaps it doesn’t matter… Very well, I’ll allow you to know. Simply, I need to absorb the Affinity from human Mages. I could do it without killing them, technically, but it’s much more effective- and much more fun, to simply take the part of them with the most Affinity and take it from that.”

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Oh, so that’s why.

“You’ve been watching me, then. And you haven’t killed me because you were waiting for my Affinity to increase first. So does that mean that it won’t be getting any higher now?”

“Nonono, I’m sure that you have much more Potential than this. But I grow tired of waiting, it’s a real chore to hold myself back for so long, and I get so hungry when I go without eating like this. I’m sure you understand, there must be some guilty pleasure that you can’t help but indulge in, every now and again.”

I made a claw with my right hand and began using my Mana recovery for a Charge, trying to expand the channels of Mana as much as I could without the full benefits of Channel Mana.

“Well, I can tell you’ve grown bored with our little chat. Let’s put you out of your misery now, shall we?”

Before I even had time to register that anything was happening, the instincts from Battle Meditation forced me to Stride out of the way, getting all the way to the tree line in one big step.

“Damn it, I knew that Skill would be more trouble than it was worth. But I suppose it’s kept you alive until now, hasn’t it?”

My Bolt had managed to get its first Charge by the time I flashed away again, this time positioning myself so that I could see the entire clearing in full. The carriage was in the centre, surrounded by 3 or 4 metres of open ground on each side before a barrier of trees took over. There, in front of the carriage, was Archibald. Or what was left of him.

Somehow Ironhold had bisected him diagonally, creating a mess that the Dark Stalker was all too happy to indulge in.

How can a Lord do something like this? Isn’t he supposed to have management Skills?

“Don’t get distracted, unless you want to just give up and make this easy for me?”

“Shit.” I cursed and took another Stride, turning around to see the Lord leisurely walking towards me from where he was standing right next to my previous position.

How is he doing that? What is his Path?

Lord Ironhold looked at his arm, examining some strange device that was attached to it, before exclaiming, “Congratulations, it looks like the student has become the master! You’ve already lasted longer than your teacher did against me. Now that’s quite an accomplishment! Don’t you feel like your life is complete?”

What the fuck? What?

My Charge ticked over again, pushing more Mana into my Bolt, and I began to consider launching the Bolt as it was. He seemed to be focussed on speed and damage, so he couldn’t have much in the way of defence, could he? I mean, I had pretty decent defences, but I don’t think they’d do much against my attacks so maybe…

He was still walking towards, apparently no longer trying to catch me off guard, so held my hand out towards him and took a Breath before letting the Bolt fly. I aimed for his head but, for some reason that I couldn’t discern, the Bolt arced downwards and dug into the centre of his chest. But that wasn’t too big of a concern, since no matter where the Bolt actually hits he would surely still be severely injured. Right?

Wrong.

The Bolt was stuck in his chest, pushing him back with Grand Skewer, for all of two seconds before it fell apart and was, for lack of a better word, absorbed. As it did so, cracks seemed to light up across his chest, pulsing with that familiar cyan blue light as though in tune with the man’s heartbeat.

As if he even has one.

“Wow! That was such a good spell!” He grinned contemptuously, before holding out his hand and pointing it towards me, “Perhaps I’ll give it a try.” And then a sharp Bolt of cyan Lightning erupted from his palm, flying towards me faster than I could react.

It struck my shoulder and scorched my cloak, but otherwise did little more than bruise. Something about it lacked the sheer destructive potential of my own Bolts.

But he was undaunted, and instantly switched to another spell. Fire erupted all around him, creating a circle that completely obscured him from view, “This is the one that your beloved Teacher used against me, it was really quite clever but unfortunately not quite good enough. Though I’m sure it will suffice against the likes of you.”

Just a bunch of fire? No, that’s too simple. Kaelan is- was- pretty smart. There must be more to it.

Unsure what was about to happen, but unwilling to let the opportunity go unused, I began to Charge another Bolt. The last one didn’t work, in fact it was absorbed just like it was against the Rat King, but there must be some limitation. Maybe that was just a one time thing that he was using for intimidation or… hmm, maybe it can’t absorb an infinite amount? What if it’s as simple as using a stronger attack?

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to create any kind of plan, and before Charge had even activated once I was forced to blindly react to a warning from Battle Meditation, jumping to the side with a burst of Lightning just before a tiny dot of fire blasted past me.

“Bah, I should’ve known it wouldn’t have worked. You’re quite the slippery one, aren’t you? Well, let’s see how you like this!” I braced for an attack, but I didn’t feel any danger coming from any direction. At least, not for a good few seconds. My Bolt was able to be Charged 3 times before I had to react to anything.

More cracks had lit up through Ironhold’s clothes, these ones blood red and only visible right above his heart, but other than that nothing seemed to be different as he jumped at me without any semblance of finesse.

What is this? Did the attack fail?

I jumped to the side, easily dodging the clumsy attack, but as I did cracks along his arm lit up with some kind of grey Light and a sharp blade of Mana burst from his skin, cutting through his sleeve and flying straight towards my neck.

In response, I leaned back as far as I could and flared Lightning Cloak, just barely managing to avoid a lethal wound. Unfortunately, the angle changed mid flight and it was still able to score a gash across my left shoulder, but that was a much more preferable outcome.

What the hell is this guy’s deal? Is he a Mage? How could he use so many different Affinities without even using a single structured spell?

Whilst I was unbalanced, a kick lashed out at me and I just barely managed to Breathe and flare my Cloak in time to soften the blow. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to completely block the attack and a cracking sound came from my abused ribs. And while the Cloak did weaken the blow, it didn’t do anything against the burst of wind that came from the now clearly glowing leg.

His pant leg was completely torn apart, but that was apparently a worthy trade off for launching me off my feet and directly into a tree. The sudden pain almost made me lose my concentration on the Bolt, but my high Willpower must have pulled its weight because the spell just barely remained in action.

I stood up shakily, glaring at the cocky smirk on the now stationary Lord’s face, and mentally prepared myself for a long battle.

He’s still completely uninjured, and I’m really feeling those attacks, but I’ll be fine. All I need to do is find and exploit his weakness, without getting killed myself. Simple enough.